People commonly use electronic devices for consuming digital media content, executing applications and performing various other functions. Examples of such electronic devices may include eBook reader devices, cellular telephones and smart phones, tablet computers, portable media players, netbooks, personal digital assistants, and the like. User interface controls for these devices often include physical keyboards. However, in many devices the physical keyboard is not used frequently enough to justify the additional size and weight that the physical keyboard would add to the device. Accordingly, to reduce the size and weight of a device, rather than having a physical keyboard, the device may present a virtual keyboard on a display screen. For example, the virtual keyboard may be displayed only when needed for entering characters in the user interface of the device, and otherwise may be hidden when not in use. Typically, a user may use navigation controls or buttons to navigate through the keys of the virtual keyboard one-at-a-time to select characters to enter into the user interface.